Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A peripheral integrated circuit, IC, device for providing support to a data processing IC device, the peripheral IC device comprising: a fault detection component arranged to detect an occurrence of a fault condition within the data processing IC device; and a safe state control component arranged to, in response to detection of the fault condition occurring within the data processing IC device by the fault detection component: cause an input/output, I/O, cell of the data processing IC device to be configured into a scan-chain; and cause a predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain to configure the I/O cell into a state corresponding to the predefined control signal.
2. The peripheral IC device of claim 1 , wherein the peripheral IC device is arranged to be operably coupled to the data processing IC device via a serial peripheral interface, and the safe state control component is arranged to transmit command signals to the data processing IC device to cause the I/O cell of the data processing IC device to be configured into the scan-chain and to cause the predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain via the serial peripheral interface.
3. The peripheral IC device of claim 1 , wherein the safe state control component is arranged to cause the I/O cell of the data processing IC device to be configured into the scan-chain by sending a command signal to a debug component of the data processing IC device instructing the debug component to configure the I/O cell of the data processing IC device into the scan-chain.
4. The peripheral IC device of claim 3 , wherein the safe state control component is arranged to cause the predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain by sending the command signal to the debug component of the data processing IC device comprising a control signal pattern to cause the debug component to scan in a control signal into the scan-chain to configure the I/O cell to comprise a logical level corresponding to the control signal pattern.
5. The peripheral IC device of claim 3 , wherein the safe state control component is arranged to cause the predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain by sending a command signal to the debug component of the data processing IC device to cause the debug component to scan in a control signal into the scan-chain to configure the I/O cell to comprise a high input impedance.
6. The peripheral IC device of claim 3 , wherein the safe state control component is arranged to cause the predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain by sending a command signal to the debug component of the data processing IC device to cause the debug component to scan in a control signal into the scan-chain to configure the I/O cell to comprise a logical level corresponding to a predefined control signal pattern.
7. The peripheral IC device of claim 3 , wherein the safe state control component is operably coupled to a memory element and arranged to read therefrom a series of command signals for causing the I/O cell of the data processing IC device to be configured into the scan-chain and for causing a predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain to configure the I/O cell into to a state corresponding to the predefined control signal.
8. The peripheral IC device of claim 7 , wherein the safe state control component is further arranged to read from the memory element the control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain.
9. The peripheral IC device of claim 3 , wherein the safe state control component is operably coupled to a fuse element configurable to define the control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain.
10. The peripheral IC device of claim 3 , wherein the control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain is hardcoded into the peripheral IC device.
11. The peripheral IC device of claim 1 , wherein the predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain is arranged to force the I/O cell into to a state comprising at least one of: a high logical level; a low logical level; and a high input impedance level.
12. The peripheral IC device of claim 1 , wherein the fault detection component is arranged to detect the occurrence of at least one of: an over-current condition within the data processing IC device; an over-voltage condition within the data processing IC device; an over-temperature condition within the data processing IC device; and a watchdog function not being serviced.
13. The peripheral IC device of claim 1 , wherein the fault detection component is arranged to detect the occurrence of fault conditions based on a notification received from the data processing IC device of the detection of a fault condition thereby.
14. The peripheral IC device of claim 1 , wherein the support provided by the peripheral IC device to the data processing IC device comprises at least one from a group comprising: power regulator functionality; over current detection functionality; watchdog functionality; and physical layer communication functionality.
15. A data processing integrated circuit, IC, device comprising a safety level configuration component, the safety level configuration component being controllable by a peripheral IC device operably coupled to the data processing IC device to: configure an input/output, I/O, cell of the data processing IC device to be configured into a scan-chain in response to a detection of a fault condition occurring within the data processing IC device; and cause a predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain to configure the I/O cell into to a state corresponding to the predefined control signal.
16. The data processing IC device of claim 15 , wherein the I/O cell is arranged to be isolated from core functional components of the data processing IC device when configured into the scan-chain by the safety level configuration component.
17. The data processing IC device of claim 15 , wherein the safety level configuration component comprises a debug component of the data processing IC device.
18. The data processing IC device of claim 15 , wherein the scan-chain comprises at least one boundary scan scan-chain.
19. The data processing IC device of claim 15 , wherein the data processing IC device comprises a microprocessor.
20. A method comprising: detecting, at a detection component, an occurrence of a fault condition within a data processing integrated circuit, IC, device; and in response to detection of the fault condition occurring within the data processing IC device: causing, by a safe state control component, an input/output, I/O, cell of the data processing IC device to be configured into a scan-chain; and causing, by the safe state control component, a predefined control signal to be scanned into the scan-chain to configure the I/O cell into a state corresponding to the predefined control signal.
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October 10, 2017
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